"They're the guy or gal who always does things the right way, no matter what corners their bosses ask them to cut," says Lowe. "They're usually also the people who stand up and say, 'We shouldn't be doing it this way; it's going to cause problems down the line. We should take the extra time to do it right.' They may not always be recognized or appreciated for that."

As in the example with the bank's failed storage array, only one person had the guts to say what his own department did to cause the problem and how it got fixed, says Howard. In that instance, that hero got rewarded by being allowed to keep his job. Not all organizations work like that.

"If you're the lone geek, you've entered a thankless realm," Howard says. "You can't walk into the arena expecting a lot of glory -- it's not there. You need to be part of this world because you're passionate about technology and helping people find solutions."

Dan Tynan has been writing about technology since Mark Zuckerberg was in nappies. A prolific freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 70 publications, he is the former editor in chief of Yahoo Tech and a longtime contributing editor for InfoWorld and PCWorld.